Hotel Scarface

Product Description

The wild, true story of the Mutiny, the hotel and club that embodied the decadence of Miami’s cocaine cowboys heyday—and an inspiration for the blockbuster film, Scarface...

In the seventies, coke hit Miami with the full force of a hurricane, and no place attracted dealers and dopers like Coconut Grove’s Mutiny at Sailboat Bay. Hollywood royalty, rock stars, and models flocked to the hotel’s club to order bottle after bottle of Dom and to snort lines alongside narcos, hit men, and gunrunners, all while marathon orgies burned upstairs in elaborate fantasy suites.
 
Amid the boatloads of powder and cash reigned the new kings of Miami: three waves of Cuban immigrants vying to dominate the trafficking of one of the most lucrative commodities ever known to man. But as the kilos—and bodies—began to pile up, the Mutiny became target number one for law enforcement.
 
Based on exclusive interviews and never-before-seen documents, Hotel Scarface is a portrait of a city high on excess and greed, an extraordinary work of investigative journalism offering an unprecedented view of the rise and fall of cocaine—and the Mutiny—in Miami.

Top Reviews

Miami Mayhem
by Bolts #91 (4 out of 5 stars)
December 27, 2018

I just received the book and so far it's a pretty good description of the players involved. I met Willie and Sal in the early 80's in Sarasota for the Grand Prix boat races .Cool guys with a fast boat. Ben Kramer was there with his Team Apache boat and entourage. Al Copeland owner of Popeye's chicken had it all on display. Yachts..helicopters..limos..multiple race boats all with the Popeye's logo. All in all the boat racing scene had more colorful characters and we had fun back then. This book fills in the blanks for me on what was happening east coast. It snowed a lot back then even on the west coast of Fla. Cocaine built the Miami skyline or a good part of it. I was in Miami in the mid 60's and it was small and a smugglers paradise. Been that way for the longest time. Doesn't matter what the alphabet boys have for law enforcement tools...it's still coming in. Too much money flowing and the demand has only increased.
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Enter At Your Own Risk....Writing so vivid you might get HIGH
by Arielle Ford (5 out of 5 stars)
September 12, 2018

As someone who lived and played in Miami during this time period, reading this book is like time traveling to the past without a seatbelt. The Mutiny was Ground Zero for everything cool, dangerous, and decadent. Farzad captures the rapid fire action with breathless accuracy.... the drugs, the guns, the pure insanity of Miami when the Cocaine Cowboys ran the show....OMG, I am so happy I survived and I am happy to know that this historical recollection is now available.
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Loved this book and bought copies for two more friends
by Brandon Wade Alcocer (5 out of 5 stars)
August 5, 2018

The stories in this book will blow you away, such that, you'll wonder how a place like the Hotel Mutiny could ever exist. The stories that went down in this hotel almost seem fake.. made up for a movie.. but, as the slogan goes.... "only in Miami". Anyone who is a fan of the cocaine cowboys documentary will get a kick out of this. Also, after reading this, I watched the movie Scarface again and saw it in an entirely new light (including a brief mention of a softball team the drug dealers played on... and how softball was really important... a seemingly "throw away" line to those who don't know the story behind Hotel Mutiny and the softball league). I LOVED THIS BOOK! In fact, this stories in this book have served as a creative inspiration for me to write my next novel with scenes that take place in Miami. Great stuff! I can't wait to discover more information about all that went down during this era.
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A crazy party - and a great book.
by CrazyEddie (5 out of 5 stars)
October 22, 2017

I'm a huge fan of the movie and of Miami Vice, so I've been anxiously awaiting the publication of this book. It did not disappoint. The events and people sometimes seem more like stories and characters, as the saying "truth is stranger than fiction" is evident in the pages. The number of people who are described, and the many years covered, must have required thousands of hours of research, and many more miles traveled, by the author. The flow of the book is analogous to the drug described at the center of the story - a crazy rush of information, an unbelievable series of events and interaction of those who rise to the top, followed by the inevitable and sad crash of (almost) everyone involved. BTW, what was in the 700lb. safe?
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I knew Miami was a different place, but wow!
by Brad (5 out of 5 stars)
April 13, 2018

I lived in Miami toward the end of the 90's and through the early 2000's, so when I heard about the book I was curious. I'd grown up far from the Miami scene and way of life, but during my time there I had heard tidbits about the way things used to be. It all sounded a lot like a fantasy world and I just had a hard time believing it. I believe it now! As they say "you just can't make this stuff up". The author does a great job of detailing not just the progression of how it all "came to be", but the characters - although I guess since this is non-fiction we should say the actual people involved. Really enjoyed this book and appreciate all the time and effort that must have gone in to researching it. I still visit Miami frequently and will probably never look at the city the same way again.
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Great Read!
by Martin (5 out of 5 stars)
December 19, 2018

Great read! Especially if you happened to have lived in Miami during the 70s and 80s during the heyday of all of this 'activity'.

As someone who operated on a small scale basis myself during the 90's in Miami I've always been intrigued by these guys and what they were able to get away with during these earlier times.

The book reads just like a reality-based version of a Carl Hiassen novel. If you liked Scarface then you'll love this book.

After you read it you'll want to go down to a secluded beach in the Keys. Maybe you'll even spot a square grouper.
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Book Review
by Sabre (4 out of 5 stars)
March 22, 2019

If you liked Cocaine Cowboys then this book will put you right at home. Is about a hotel back in the Cocaine Cowboys era and all the events that happened there which were really wild times. News that later it may turn into some TV series or some movie is floating around too now. Anyway really have to wait and see but right now check the book out.
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A definitive look at the sexiest corner of 1980s America
by Amazon Customer (5 out of 5 stars)
November 13, 2017

It's easy for a journalist to research and write a story, but Roben Farzad goes far beyond that in "Hotel Scarface" - not only does he live the tale vicariously, he lets the reader do the same. As you turn the pages, it's not hard to imagine yourself in 1980s Miami amid the glitz, the glamour, the playboys and the melodrama. "Hotel Scarface" is nothing short of an engrossing read that cracks open the personalities who defined 1980s America. Highly recommended for anyone who remembers (or isThe even a bit nostalgic?) for the era.
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Hotel Mutiny, Where it used to snow in Miami!
by Mike Hunt (5 out of 5 stars)
November 19, 2018

Couldn't resist a book about a club I used to be a member of in the late 70s and early 80s, the Hotel Mutiny on the bay in Coconut Grove. It was wide open!
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One of the Very Best Books of it's Kind
by Scott T. Wilson (5 out of 5 stars)
August 29, 2018

If you're a fan of Brian De Palma's 'Scarface' remake and Billy Corben's 'Cocaine Cowboys' documentaries, do yourself a HUGE favor and read Roben Farzad's book 'Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Partied and Plotted to Control Miami.' It's a truly INSANE read. Every single character in this book could be the subject of his very own film or Netflix series. To conveniently put it in the "true crime" category simply doesn't do it justice.

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